


I Still Look For Your Face

by enby0angel



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Canonical Character Death, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, I might come back and write another part but this is a complete fic, I've been working on this for months and this is the result, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Missing-Nin Hatake Kakashi, Mutual Pining, One-Shot, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 07:46:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19313746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enby0angel/pseuds/enby0angel
Summary: They never expected it to go like this.“Obito?” Kakashi’s voice rasped. He was the first one of them to speak through the darkness that enveloped them. “Rin?”Obito coughed, wiping the blood from his mouth. He blinked a few times to adjust his eyes to the darkness, his eyes immediately flitting to Rin’s panting figure. The ringing in his ears slowly, but surely, subsided.“Are… are you okay?” Kakashi’s voice was unstable, and this time Obito followed the sound, freezing at the sight.Kakashi was lying, half-crushed and surrounded by his own blood, underneath a boulder in a small cavern.





	I Still Look For Your Face

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Naruto fandom, please take my humble offering as my dive back into writing fic for this fandom after three years of absence. I didn't even ship this when I left but then I caught The Queer(TM) and came back with my homo goggles on. They look like Obito's, but with rainbow lenses.
> 
> I love role reversal fics with these two and quite frankly there's not enough, so here's my take! I have a few different ideas for role reversals/role rotations/role swaps for Team Yellow Flash, and this is only the beginning.
> 
> I haven't written anything this long in aaaaaages how did I even manage this. RIP my brain. Experimenting with a slightly different format than usual was interesting and fun, though!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!! Love always <3
> 
> (Title from "If You Could See Me Now" by The Script).

They never expected it to go like this.

“Obito?” Kakashi’s voice rasped. He was the first one of them to speak through the darkness that enveloped them. “Rin?”

Obito coughed, wiping the blood from his mouth. He blinked a few times to adjust his eyes to the darkness, his eyes immediately flitting to Rin’s panting figure. The ringing in his ears slowly, but surely, subsided.

“Are… are you okay?” Kakashi’s voice was unstable, and this time Obito followed the sound, freezing at the sight.

Kakashi was lying, half-crushed and surrounded by his own blood, underneath a boulder in a small cavern.

“Kakashi?” Rin wimpered, dragging herself over to him. Obito copied the movement, touching his teammate’s shoulder and feeling his eyes fill with tears at the wince that followed.

“What happened?” Kakashi croaked. “I… I can’t see anything.” At this, Obito’s grip tightened on Kakashi’s shoulder, and his whole body shook. Kakashi’s one good eye was underneath the boulder, and there was no way the two of them could get him out without help and a lot of it. “Obito?”

“We’re okay,” Obito had to reassure him.

Moving closer, Rin asked, “What do you feel?”

What was probably an attempt at a huff of laughter ended with coughs wracking Kakashi’s body, the mask over his mouth stained dark. Obito felt awful; there had to be something they could do – something, _anything!_ “I… I can’t...” Another cough. “Everything hurts. I almost can’t feel it.” Rin’s eyes filled up with tears, and Obito felt his own eyes sting. He couln’t cry now, he just couldn’t. He had to stay strong, for all of them. “You have to go.”

“No. We’re not leaving without you.” Obito said this almost without realising it, but as soon as the words left his mouth he knew he meant them. Kakashi may have driven him insane since the day they met, but that didn’t mean…

“You have to. Please.” Was Kakashi… begging? “Please, you have to go. I’m dying. You can’t die. Please. _Please_.”

“We’re _not leaving you_.” Rin repeated Obito’s words but harsher, gripping his arm. Her hand moved down to hold Kakashi’s, and Obito found himself laying his own hand on top of theirs. He felt Kakashi’s weak grip hold onto them. He was getting weaker by the minute. “We won’t leave you,” Rin said again. “We can’t.”

Kakashi was wracked with coughs again, his whole body tensing. Obito could do nothing but keep in contact with him, reminding him that he was not alone. Reminding all of them. “Please,” Kakashi said again, his voice even weaker now. “Take Pakkun and the others, and go. Don’t leave them here.” He tried to lift his body, or something of the sort, so that Obito or Rin could get to the scroll he kept in one of his pockets. Obito moved forward to help, trying to lift his waist as gently as possible so that Rin could gently reach behind him to get it. Obito gently laid his teammate – partner? Friend? - down again. Kakashi let out a breath in what sounded like relief, though it sounded like there was something in his throat. Obito knew it was blood, but he still naively hoped it wasn’t. “Thank you,” he sighed. “Look after them. Please.”

“We will,” Obito murmured. It sounded so final.

All at once, an idea came to him. It was absolutely mad and there was no way Kakashi would agree, but he had to do it. He had to try

He pushed his chakra into his eyes to activate his Sharingan, and suddenly he could see, _really_ see, how much pain Kakashi was in. “Take my eye then.”

“What?”

“My eye. Take it to replace yours,” Obito elaborated, gripping Kakashi’s hand. He smiled a little, sad and crooked. “Consider it a belated Jounin gift.”

“I can’t,” Kakashi said. “I couldn’t take that from you.”

“Please,” Obito begged. “Let me do this. Let me see for you. Let me show you this life and the one beyond. _Please_ , Kakashi.”

Kakashi was silent, before he weakly squeezed Obito’s hand again. It was barely there. “Alright,” he whispered, reluctant but accepting. “Alright. Thank you.”

Obito looked to Rin, who nodded, moving to get her med kit. She harshly wiped her eyes and her face hardened as she prepared herself both physically and mentally for the procedure ahead. She could do this – Obito trusted her with his life.

The operation took less than an hour, and all the while Obito never once let go of Kakashi’s hand. He never asked himself why that was; they both needed the comfort.

He watched as Kakashi blinked a few times, visible face changing as he saw again. “What is this…?” he asked, sounding awed.

Obito smiled at him. “My Sharingan.”

A shaky breath escaped Kakashi’s lips. “Obito...” he whispered. His gaze landed on Obito’s face, and stayed there.

Smile shaking, Obito said, “You’d be better at using them than I ever will be.”

“Don’t say that...” Kakashi’s voice was getting weaker still. Obito was fully aware that Kakashi could now see the tears running down his face, but honestly? He didn’t care.

Obito shook his head, wiping his eyes- eye, now. “Thank you,” he said, “for letting me do this.”

Somehow, he could tell that Kakashi was smiling underneath his mask. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “that I never thanked either of you enough. For anything. Everything.” He coughed again, though this time it seemed like he could barely muster the energy to do that.

“You don’t have to,” Rin answered him. Her voice was wobbling dangerously on the edge of breaking.

“Yes, I do.”

There was a groan around them, Obito and Rin immediately looking up to see what was happening.

“You have to go,” Kakashi brought their attention back to him. His voice sounded stronger with the sense of urgency. “Get out of here.”

“Kakashi,” Rin sobbed. She dove in and pressed a teary kiss to his forehead, just above his new eye. “I don’t want to leave you!”

Cough. “Then consider these my last orders as your mission leader: Go, look after the dogs, look after Minato-sensei and Kushina, but most importantly,” he paused here and swallowed, a tear rolling down his face, “look after each other.”

“We will.” With those words, Obito made a vow to Kakashi and to himself. The sacrifices Kakashi made today would not be in vain.

“Go.” The world around them moved suddenly, dangerously. “Go!”

With one final quick squeeze of Kakashi’s hand, Obito jumped up and grabbed Rin and Kakashi’s scroll. He wrapped one arm around Rin’s waist and hauled her up and out of the cavern. Together they dodged falling rocks and made their way out – they flung themselves forward onto the grass, collapsing on top of each other as the world collapsed behind them.

Rin scrambled to her hands and knees. “ _Kakashi!_ ” she screamed, then coughed as she inhaled dust and smoke. She began to move forward, but Obito grabbed her and pulled her close to himself.

“Don’t, Rin,” he managed to get out, “you’ll hurt yourself.”

“But Kakashi!” she sobbed. Her voice sounded manic, like she was screaming through torture. “He’s trapped in there! We have to get him out, we have to save him! We have to-”

“We can’t.” The words were too harsh, too final, but he forced them out anyway. “We can’t. There’s nothing we can do. He’s...” _don’t be true don’t be true don’t say it please don’t be true_ “… he’s gone.” His voice broke, and that was it. He and Rin cried together for Kakashi, their lost teammate, their friend.

They stayed like that until Minato found them, still crying. He heard his sensei ask what happened, are they hurt, where was Kakashi? Obito couldn’t answer him. The three of them were silent, aside from Rin’s sobs, as Minato put the pieces together and fell to his knees.

They stayed like that for a long while, mourning.

 

Obito had nightmares for months after that. Horrid dreams of being trapped in a cave, crushed under boulders, Sharingan staring down at him from a pale, gaunt face.

Sometimes the dreams were warped, Kakashi half-crushed with blood seeping from an empty eye socket as he cursed Obito. _“Why didn’t you save me?”_ he would ask. _“Why didn’t you get me out?” “I knew you always wanted me gone.” “It should have been you. We’d be better off without you.”_

Other times they were weirdly realistic, as if he _were_ Kakashi, looking up at himself and Rin crying, bandages covering the left side of Obito’s – his – face, showing which eye he’d given away. Watching as the small, dark cave got smaller as the boulders fell in on top of him.

Sometimes he’d wake up crying, sometimes screaming. Sometimes sweating, sometimes shivering. Sometimes he’d wake up and his heart would be pounding so hard and so fast it was like he was _there_ again, and it was awful.

He visited the memorial stone a lot. Before every mission, after every nightmare.

It wasn’t enough.

 

Rin was a mess. Obito had known about her feelings for Kakashi – it was obvious every time he looked at her when she was looking at _him_ – and she was clearly taking it hard. The hospital gave her time off to gather herself until she was well enough to work again, and Obito knew that she was going to regular therapy sessions.

“You should really try it,” Rin had said one day. “Therapy, that is. It’s actually helped me a lot, especially with the nightmares. It’s better than it sounds.”

“I’ll try it,” Obito had said.

He never did.

 

Kakashi’s dogs mourned with howls and tears. Pakkun, once chatty, sarcastic and an all-around little shit, became almost as silent as Kakashi once was. They all missed him, and they all flat-out refused the Inuzuka clan’s kind offers of new partners.

One day, Pakkun trotted into Obito’s room after he’d woken up with fresh tears on his face. Obito was silently crying into his knees, and Pakkun jumped up onto his bed, disturbing him.

“Hey, kid,” Pakkun grunted. “How’re you doing?”

With a huff of laughter with no humour behind it, Obito wiped his eyes. “How does it look?” he asked.

Pakkun said nothing for a minute, gazing at Obito with his head tilted slightly to the side. “You should sign the scroll,” he suddenly announced, and Obito looked back up.

“What?”

“Sign the summoning scroll,” Pakkun insisted. “We need a partner, and you need support. We all miss him.”

Obito looked down at the scroll Pakkun had helpfully deposited on the bed in front of him. “Are you sure you want… _me_ to sign it?” he asked carefully. “I thought most of you didn’t like me.”

“We’re not used to you, kid,” Pakkun explained. “And Kakashi’s stories about you were actually highly entertaining.”

Obito raised his eyebrows. What would have once been an offensive jibe was now a… well, he wasn’t sure what it was because _Kakashi told his ninken about him?_ “Kakashi didn’t like me either,” was what he managed to blurt out.

Pakkun rolled his eyes, and fixed Obito with a _look_. “He did, kid. He liked you a lot more than you thought. Than _he_ thought. Apart from us, you two were his only friends.”

Friends?

Obito picked up the scroll and undid the seal. Unrolling it, he saw the faded names and handprints of many members of the Hatake clan he didn’t know.

_Hatake Megumi_

_Hatake Kayo_

_Hatake Hachiro_

_Hatake Yukiko_

_Hatake Sakumo_

His gaze lingered on Kakashi’s name, the last, and the empty spot next to it. He looked up at Pakkun, who nodded and gestured with a paw to the scroll.

There was a shuffling noise at the door of his bedroom, and they both looked around to see the rest of the Ninken waiting in the hall. Obito couldn’t help but smile at the sight. “Hey guys,” he greeted them. Bull barked and bound into the room, launching himself up onto the bed, bouncing Pakkun up and making Obito laugh. The rest gathered into the room, sitting themselves down on the bed or on the floor as they saw appropriate. They all looked on as Obito clutched the scroll.

“Go on, kid,” Pakkun insisted again, and a few dogs nodded in encouragement.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Obito flattened out the scroll on his knees and bit into his thumb. He signed his name and pressed his hand underneath it, and he felt his chakra surge as the seal was completed.

“Good job, kid,” Pakkun congratulated him. “We’re with you ‘til the end of the line.”

“Thank you,” Obito whispered. Bull came even closer, pressing his head against Obito’s cheek in a small display of comfort. In that instance Obito had a sudden feeling of family. Or, perhaps _pack_ was a better word.

He looked down at the scroll again.

_Hatake Kakashi_

_Uchiha Obito_

He pressed his hand against the print of Kakashi’s for a moment, before rolling the scroll back up again.

 

He faced more scrutiny from hisclan than ever now. Although, the Uchiha hasn’t been his clan for a long time, it was just a name he carried around and a kekki genkai in his eyes. But when the Uchiha found out he gave his eye to an outsider (a _dead_ outsider), he was practically pushed away from his home. Not that he cared much.

Since he signed the summoning scroll that gave him access to the Ninken, he stopped wearing the Uchiha fan on his clothes. With help from Rin and Kushina (Minato gladly gave this job up), he began to dress more like a Konoha shinobi than an Uchiha.

He moved out of the Uchiha compound – as much as he was shunned and unwanted and all but kicked out, he left of his own accord. He got his own apartment, small but comfortable, and lived on his own. Of course he was invited to Minato and Kushina’s at least once a week, but he got better at taking care of himself. He had at least one of the Ninken with him almost all the time – he appreciated the company.

He felt more at home than he ever had, yet somehow he still felt alone.

 

He trained with the dogs and his Sharingan almost every day, and soon people stopped looking at him as the Uchiha outsider, and began seeing the powerful Shinobi he was becoming. His fire jutsus had improved significantly with the help of Rin and Minato. Together, they were moving on.

 

Until they weren’t.

 

It happened so fast, yet every second was excruciatingly slow.

Rin getting kidnapped by Kiri.

Obito rescuing her, but not before they force her to become the jinchuuriki to Isobu, the three-tailed demon.

Rin telling him to kill her before she can hurt anyone.

Obito refusing.

Rin making the decision for him, jumping in front of his jutsu.

Obito watching as the fire burns a hole right through Rin’s stomach and chest, and Obito being powerless to stop it.

Rin whispering something to him, and Obito watching as she collapses in front of him, what little blood she had left pooling around her.

Feeling his eye burn with a searing heat, even though he is too numb to feel the pain.

_I’m sorry, Kakashi. I failed you._

Collapsing next to Rin.

 

When he is fifteen, he is made a Jonin. It is bittersweet to know that he’s finally up to Kakashi’s level, and neither Kakashi nor Rin lived to see it.

When he is sixteen, he is sent on a mission that changes _everything_.

 

It was supposed to be a simple mission, taking a set of sealing scrolls from Konoha to a small village on the edge of Fire and then come right back, and so far it had gone exactly to plan. He hadn’t even needed to summon the (his?) Ninken for anything for anything, it was going that well.

So, of course, on his way home he trips a fucking _tripwire_ (that had been expertly hidden, so you can’t blame him, thank you very much) that makes the world explode around him. Of course.

He manages to get his bearings fairly quickly, kunai in one hand and the other ready to do whatever seals he needs. He dutifully ignores the ringing in his ears and activates his Sharingan, looking around him with deathly intensity. There was a flash of silver to his right and he whipped around, bringing his kunai up barely in time to meet the katana coming his way. He leapt backwards, trading his kunai for a long blade of his own and taking the opportunity to get a good look at his opponent. They wore sturdy shinobi armour, the kind that would protect from an attack but was still light to wear. Their arms were wrapped in bandages from elbow to hands, and their face was covered with a painted mask that somewhat resembled a hound. It was not dissimilar to Konoha ANBU masks, but Obito could tell immediately that this was no ANBU.

Obito was preparing himself to attack again when he saw the other shinobi hesitate, even taking a step back. Obito wan’t _that_ well-known, was he?

But then the shinobi’s blade lowered, his body completely open. Obito didn’t move, his own blade still in a defensive position, when he heard the other shinobi’s voice ask shakily, “...Obito?”

Obito was too stunned to say anything.

“Is that you?” the shinobi continued. “I… I thought you were dead.”

“Who are you?” Obito finally managed to say. He tried to make his voice sound demanding, but he wasn’t entirely sure it worked. “Tell me!”

One of the shinobi’s hands went up and Obito readied himself, but the hand only went to their mask, pulling it off their face. Suddenly Obito was looking at an all too familiar pair of eyes, eyes that he hadn’t seen in a long time; one black, one Sharingan identical to his own.

“Kakashi?”

 

The next little while went like this:

Obito stunned and frozen, and Kakashi much the same.

Obito in disbelief, and Kakashi trying to assure him.

Obito yelling, and Kakashi just… taking it.

Obito crying, and Kakashi hugging him in comfort for the first time in their lives.

 

Soon they were sitting side-by-side under a large oak, relishing being near each other.

“How?” Obito finally asked. “How are you alive?”

Kakashi gave him a sad look – he was still wearing that stupid mask of his (“Old habits die hard, I guess?”) but his emotions were so much easier to see now, though for what reason Obito wasn’t sure – and answered with, “I don’t know.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“Not really. I remember waking up next to someone. Uchiha Madara, he called himself. He said he regenerated my body, and that I owe him. I don’t really remember much after that.”

Obito latched onto one word. “Regenerated?”

Kakashi looked at him for a few seconds, before bringing up his right arm and beginning to unravel the bandages around it. Obito’s eyes widened as he saw what was underneath: skin that wasn’t skin at all, but something synthetic and white.

Before he realised what he was doing, Obito was reaching out to Kakashi’s hand. Kakashi didn’t move away, so Obito gently took his old friend’s hand in his own. The synthetic skin was warm like normal skin, but it was devoid of identifying fingerprints.

“Half of my body is like that,” Kakashi murmured quietly, breaking the silence. “If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have survived.”

“This is impossible,” Obito breathed. He was running his fingers over Kakashi’s hand, turning it this way and that.

Kakashi chuckled quietly. “You’d have thought so, huh?” Obito looked up to see that Kakashi was staring at him intensely. He had covered his Sharingan by slanting his forehead protector down over it – the Konoha hitai-ate was still visible, but the image was slashed through by a single straight line.

Obito was suddenly aware of how close they were to each other. They were pressed together almost shoulder to thigh, but Obito couldn’t bring himself to feel embarrassed. He had gone too long without his friend, and he was going to savour whatever he could get now.

“The Ninken miss you,” Obito blurted out. “A lot.”

Kakashi blinked, tilting his head slightly. “Really?”

Obito nodded. “They’re not the same without you. I’ve tried looking after them the best I can, but you’re their family, y’know?” He couldn’t seem to stop talking. “Everyone’s missed you. Nobody heard a word from Gai for a week. Minato-sensei was heartbroken, and Kushina-san tore apart half of the house – they were expecting, too, y’know. Rin-”

He stopped. It had been two years, and saying her name still hurt like hell.

“Rin...” Kakashi’s voice was quiet, almost inaudible.

Obito swallowed. Hearing her name hurt, too. “She was never the same. She loved you, y’know? She brought you flowers every day she was in the village without fail – they put your name on that memorial stone near the training grounds.” His voice broke, and fresh tears began to fall. He pulled his hand away from Kakashi and buried his face in them. “She’ll never know you’re alive,” he said through gritted teeth.

Kakashi’s hand found Obito’s shoulder, before curling around him and pulling him close. They clung to each other, crying for their lost friend.

 

“What happened to her?” Kakashi asked afterwards. “Rin. What happened?”

Obito worried at his lip. “She was kidnapped by Kiri, and they made her a jinchuuriki. Kiri was planning on using her to unleash it on Konoha. She tried to make me kill her. I refused, so… so she made the choice for me. Jumped in front of my attack. She didn’t even hesitate.” Obito looked at the sky. “She died to save _everyone_.”

Kakashi was silent.

 

“Come back with me.”

Kakashi shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” Obito demanded, jumping to his feet so that he was looking down at Kakashi. “We miss you. We need you!” He paused. “I need you.”

“Obito,” Kakashi said patiently. “Don’t you see?”

Obito clenched his fists. “See what?”

Kakashi gestured to the slashed hitai-ate on his forehead protector. “I’m a missing-nin now, Obito. There’s a bounty on my head from every hidden village. I can’t go back. If I do, I’ll be executed.”

“No.” Obito’s face fell. “You’re- you’re a missing-nin? How?”

With a rueful look, Kakashi looked away. “Nobody knows my name, seeing as they think Hatake Kakashi is dead. They gave me a nickname.”

Silently, Obito mentally flipped through the bingo book in Konoha. Jonin were required to look through them to know which missing-nin had flee-on-sight orders, especially Jonin Sensei with a genin team.

He stopped. “You’re the Wolf?” he asked. Kakashi nodded. “No way. You’re the _Wolf?_ ”

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Kakashi asked. “I don’t even have my father’s tanto anymore.”

Obito sat down again, staring at Kakashi in disbelief. “You have flee-on-sight orders from Konoha!”

“Really?” Kakashi’s voice was lighter now. “I’m flattered.”

“Flattered- oh my _god_.” Obito ran a hand through his hair, looking into the distance and suitably questioning his life. “You’re still insufferable.”

Kakashi laughed – and wasn’t that a lovely sound?

Wait, what?

 

Far too soon, the sun had begun to sink closer and closer towards the horizon, and Kakashi insisted that they had to part ways for now.

“Are you sure you won’t come back with me?” Obito asked one last time. Maybe if he asked once more, Kakashi would say yes.

But alas, Kakashi gave him a look and tilted his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s better for both of us if I don’t.”

As much as he hated it, Obito knew that he was right.

Kakashi sighed. “I wish it wasn’t like this,” he said quietly.

“Me too,” Obito agreed.

For a minute, they were silent, simply standing and studying each other. When had Kakashi grown to the same height as him? He had to ask, “Will I see you again?”

Kakashi tilted his head again, and Obito now realised that he was smiling underneath the mask. “We have the same eyes,” he said, as if that explained everything.

It did, in a way. “Two halves of a whole,” he finished, and Kakashi nodded. That was all Obito needed to launch himself into Kakashi’s arms, wrapping his arms around his neck and burying his face into his shoulder. Kakashi caught him, and Obito felt his arms go around his waist, and Kakashi leaned his head into Obito’s hair. Obito never wanted to let go, and if the tightness around his waist was any indication, neither did Kakashi.

But eventually Kakashi’s arms loosened and he pulled back. Before Obito could say a word, Kakashi’s rewrapped hand had cupped his cheek, and Kakashi had kissed him softly on the lips.

Oh. _Oh._

_Shit._

It was brief and chaste, not to mention odd since Kakashi was still masked. Kakashi moved back, and hummed in content. “See? Now I have to see you again so I can kiss you properly, if you want.”

“Asshole,” Obito breathed, wanting nothing more than to take that proper kiss _now_.

Kakashi chuckled again, kissed Obito on the forehead and moved back. “I’ll see you soon”, he hummed.

Obito squeezed Kakashi’s hand that he couldn’t let go of, not yet. “Make it sooner rather than later, okay?” His voice was weak, but Kakashi didn’t comment on it. “Promise me.”

Kakashi squeezed his hand back. “I promise.” He slid his hand out slowly, in a way that made Obito want to cry. He replaced his mask, once again making him the Wolf, the faceless missing-nin.

Obito watched his other half disappear into the fading light.

 

He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, watching the spot where Kakashi vanished, but eventually he pulled himself out of it, and began making his way back to Konoha.

 

“Mission completed, Hokage-sama.”

“Good. Thank you, Obito-kun. Anything else to report?”

“Nothing, Hokage-sama.”

 

It felt bad, lying to his former-sensei-turned-Hokage, but Obito felt it necessary. He could trust his other half, he knew he could.

His other half wouldn’t lie to him.

In his heart, Obito knew that even if Kakashi wanted to lie to him, he couldn’t.

After all, they are two halves of a whole.

 

A raven came a few weeks later. It was addressed with the kanji for Fire, listed a time and a place, and was signed _Lightning_. If he focused his Sharingan on the letter, he could almost see a pale arm writing it – Kakashi’s arm.

Obito memorised the details, then burned the letter with his chakra. The ashes fell to the floor, leaving no trace of Kakashi behind. He scribbled an affirmative reply on a scrap of paper, signed it _Fire_ , and gave it to the raven to return. He watched as the raven flew off into the distance, a speck against the bright sky, until he could see it no more.

 

He asked the Yondaime for some time off – only a few days, as a friend from a small village nearby had asked him to visit. Minato had raised an eyebrow (the only time off Obito had taken since he became Chunin was due to mission injuries), but had granted him some time. Obito had thanked him profusely, and then left to pack.

He only packed one bag, and left his forehead protector in his cupboard – he didn’t need nor want it where he was going. In fact, he left anything that marked him as a Leaf shinobi behind, only taking weapons as a precaution. The village he was going to – because it was in fact a village, he didn’t lie to his old sensei about that – was a peaceful one and was not a shinobi village, but it never hurt to be prepared.

With that, he left.

 

The village was indeed peaceful; he rounded a bend in the road and the scenery changed from lush forest to bright village full of life. Looking around as he walked he saw families, couples and friends chattering to each other as they went about their day. A few people smiled at him as he walked past, but nobody looked twice. When he stopped to look at an interesting stall he passed, the elderly vendor explained that it was not uncommon to see wandering shinobi in this place. In fact, another like him had stopped in town just yesterday to stay at the inn! Obito bought one of her wares and thanked her profusely, and set off down the road.

He had to be around here somewhere. He just _had_ to be.

“You’re late.”

Obito whirled around to see the man himself leaning against a wall, arms crossed in front of him and a patch over his eye.

And he was smirking under that _damn mask_.

Obito launched himself forward, not caring that his bag dropped to the floor, and Kakashi laughed as he caught him in his arms.

“I missed you,” Obito murmured.

Kakashi’s arms around Obito’s waist tightened, and he buried his head in Obito’s shoulder. “I missed you too,” he admitted, and Obito smiled.

“I’ll admit,” he said, “I didn’t think _soon_ would be this soon.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Not one bit.” Obito grinned as Kakashi pulled up to look at him. “You do owe me a kiss, you know.” He winked, relishing in the way Kakashi’s breath hitched ever so slightly and how the smallest blush tinted the visible part of his face.

Kakashi hummed, playing it off. “I do believe I owe you a lot more than that,” he countered, and now it was Obito’s turn to blush. Unfortunately, Obito had a lot more of his face visible, meaning his blush was more obvious, leading to Obito having to push his head against Kakashi’s neck to hide his embarrassment.

Somehow, Kakashi still managed to be a pain in the ass.

There was a coo behind them, and they looked around to see a pair of elderly women giggling at them. “Ah, young love,” one of them sighed, her hand over her heart. She looked to her companion and asked, “Do you remember when we were that young?”

“Oh, dear,” the second replied, “as if it were yesterday.”

The first lady took the second’s hand and said, “My dear Megumi, you’re just as beautiful as you were back then.” The second lady, Megumi, blushed elegantly and swatted her partner’s shoulder. The first lady, Obito and Kakashi all laughed good-naturedly.

Megumi turned to them. “Please ignore my dear Arisa,” she said, but her grin was blinding.

Arisa squeezed her hand. “You love me,” she teased.

“Of course I do.”

Obito felt Kakashi squeeze his hip, and he leant back into him. A soft kiss was pressed onto his hair, and he smiled. For the first time in forever, he felt entirely relaxed. When Megumi and Arisa asked the boys to join them for lunch, Obito and Kakashi looked at each other. Kakashi tilted his head and nodded, and Obito lead them over to properly introduce themselves.

They spent the afternoon with their new friends, and Obito loved every second of it.

 

They had dinner to themselves. Kakashi brought him to a nice little restaurant and got them a booth in a corner, where they could talk quietly amongst themselves. They talked about things they hadn’t been able to that day in the forest.

Kakashi couldn’t stop smiling when he found out that Minato and Kushina had a child – nearly two years old already. He had a faraway look in his eyes. When asked, he replied with, “I wish I could have been there.”

 

That night was nothing but bliss. Kakashi had taken Obito back to a room he’d rented for them at the inn, and he’d chuckled at the way Obito’s breath had hitched when he noticed there was only one futon in the bedroom.

“Like you said,” he pressed up behind Obito, wrapping his arm around the frozen boy’s waist, “I owe you.”

Oh boy, that did it.

Obito whirled around, grabbing Kakashi’s hips and pressing him against the door. Kakashi offered no resistance, not even when Obito trailed one hand up and brushed his thumb over the top of Kakashi’s mask. His silent question was given a silent answer when Kakashi covered Obito’s hand with his own and pulled the mask down.

_Fuck, he’s gorgeous._

His few thoughts were interrupted by the overwhelming urge to kiss the life out of the boy, so he did. They wrapped around each other, not an inch of space between them anywhere, and to Obito it felt like a breath of fresh air. It was _glorious_.

And _fucking kami_ , that little moan Kakashi made when Obito tugged on his hair was too much, any inhibitions he had going into this were now gone. Kakashi didn’t seem to mind one bit as Obito practically manhandled him over to the futon and laid the two of them over it.

“I trust you,” Kakashi murmured into Obito’s mouth, and Obito could only kiss him harder and work faster to remove every scrap of clothing from their bodies.

His last coherent thought was, _Kami, I’m not sure what I did to deserve this but please,_ please _let me keep it. Let me keep_ him _._

 

It was later, in the darkness of the room, that Kakashi whispered his secrets.

Obito admitted his in return, and they quietly and inappropriately laughed at how fucked up they were – how they’d become. They were different now. Kakashi was less serious, Obito more so.

“Do you want your eye back?” Kakashi asked suddenly.

Obito sat over him, looking down at him. Both of Kakashi’s eyes stared up at him, black and red and filled with emotions Obito couldn’t name.

Smiling, Obito shook his head. “No.” _Never._ “It was a gift. It’s yours now.”

Kakashi bit his lip and _holy fucking shit_ _that’s hot_ _-_ “Are you sure?” he asked.

Instead of answering, Obito kissed him, and they wrapped themselves around each other again.

 

They spent the next day learning each other inside and out. By the end of it, Obito could tell you Kakashi’s favourite meal that his mother used to make him, and exactly where his hands were more or less calloused; Kakashi could tell you every single embarrassing nickname Pakkun had come up with for Obito in the last year, and how many scars he had on his chest and where they were.

Some things hadn’t changed: Kakashi still preferred books over people (“ _Most_ people,” he would say with a wink and Obito would _not_ blush, thank you very much), and Obito was still pretty easily excitable when he saw something interesting. They still argued over petty things, and Obito was fairly certain that Kakashi could still kick his ass without trying.

They were different, but _they_ were still the same. And as they walked through the marketplace of the village, hand-in-hand, that was all that mattered to Obito.

 

“Hey, Kakashi?”

Kakashi looked up from the scroll he’d been reading over. “Hmm?”

Obito swallowed. “Will you… will you see the ninken?” Kakashi stilled. “Please,” Obito went on. “ _Please_ , Kakashi, they really miss you. They’re your _family_.”

Worrying at his lip, Kakashi looked away. “Will they want to see me?” he mumbled. He probably didn’t intent for Obito to hear that particular phrase of self-deprecation, but Obito heard it alright and he wasn’t happy.

“ _Hatake Kakashi-”_

 

In the end, after a furious telling-off by Obito, Kakashi agreed. They went to a forest a little ways away from the village, where Obito bit into his thumb.

Kakashi’s eye widened. “You’re their summoner?”

Pausing, Obito smiled. “Yeah.” He shrugged. “The Inuzuka offered but they all said no. The Uchiha weren’t too happy with me signing the scroll, but they can suck it.”

_Kuchiyose no jutsu!_

In a puff of smoke the Ninken pack appeared, Pakkun on his usual perch atop Bull. They all still wore Kakashi’s _henohenomoheji_ symbol on their vests as well as the Konoha hitai-ate – they all collectively refused to get rid of it.

“Hey kid,” Pakkun was the first to greet him. “What’s-”

They all caught sight of a bewildered Kakashi standing next to Obito.

And then… there was utter chaos.

 

That night Kakashi and Obito didn’t sleep alone. They were surrounded – and _covered_ – by dogs.

It was nice.

 

“Come back with me?”

Maybe if he asked one more time, Kakashi would say yes.

“You know I can’t.”

He knew. He didn’t like it, but he knew.

 

“How was your trip?” Kushina asked him. When he returned he’d immediately been invited to dinner – although, maybe “invited” was a loose term, seeing as Kushina had levelled him with a look that warned him he couldn’t refuse.

Obito looked up from where he’d been wrestling Naruto into his high chair. He loved the kid, he honestly did, but he was also a _pain in the ass._ “Good!” he said cheerfully.

“Who’d you go see?”

Ignoring the light blush he _knew_ was covering his cheeks, Obito only replied, “An old friend. I met them once on a mission, we stayed in touch.”

Kushina raised an eyebrow. “Friend, or _friend_?” He knew he’d blushed harder when Kushina started giggling. “I knew it. Told you so, Minato!” she called to her husband, who had looked up from his paperwork to watch the interaction with a fond smile.

If only they knew.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!! Comments and kudos are always appreciated!
> 
> Hmu on tumblr: enby-angel.tumblr.com! <3


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